How Sheltered International Makes Filing Duty Payments Easier for Your Business
From saving you time to improving your cash flow, using the Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS) process can offer significant benefits to your business. PMS has no additional cost and allows your business to pay duties monthly in a single payment, instead of for each individual transaction. Combined with our tracking and reporting software SiShips, your business can enjoy simplified reporting and accounting and a greater sense of control when it comes to duty payments.
How Do Periodic Monthly Statements Work?
Periodic Monthly Statements track entry activities throughout the month to provide a single monthly statement. This structure also extends the payment window. While when paying per shipment, the importer must pay duties within 10 business days, PMS offers the importer 15 business days after the end of each cycle to pay. For example, the duties on goods imported between July 1 and July 31 will be summed at the end of the month. The monthly payment is then not due until the fifteenth business day of the following month – in this example, August 21.
With this additional time, your business can extend cash flow by up to 54 days. The single payment not only makes it much easier to track your finances, but also offers significantly more control over your working capital.
How Can My Business Use PMS for Duty Payments?
Get started with PMS by filling out an application and sending it Sheltered International to review and submit to Customs. In a few weeks you will receive a Payer Unit Number (PUNS) from Custom’s ACH team. Once received, you must forward your PUNS number to Sheltered to complete the activation.
How Can SiShips Help?
To streamline the process even further, our software SiShips generates a duty summary (7501) for each entry throughout the month for accounting and record-keeping. Once the month has closed, a final statement will be provided to review before Customs pulls the duty on the 15th business day the following month. These reports can all be easily accessed through our software. That’s less time that you have to spend on accounting and more time you can devote to supporting your customers and growing your business.
With greater control over your cash flow and a simplified payment process, it’s clear that PMS can be valuable for you and your business.